A Day On, Not a Day Off: Students ‘Pitch In’ on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 7, 2013

College students volunteer in the community on Monday, Jan. 21

TACOMA, Wash. – Young hands that are often busy texting or tweeting will be hard at other tasks—such as digging, washing, planting, building, and packing lunches—come this Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

On Monday, January 21 more than 200 University of Puget Sound students are expected to “make it a day on, not a day off” as they participate in the college’s 5th Annual Day of Service on the national holiday celebrating the 1960s civil rights campaigner.

This August it will be 50 years since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech during a march on Washington, D.C. Fifty years is a long time ago for most college-age students, but volunteering to help make other people’s dreams a little more real is something they understand perhaps better than any generation before them.

More than 15 organizations, from Puget Creek Restoration Society to the AIDS Housing Association of Tacoma, can expect help from volunteering students, staff, and faculty members. Previous Annual Day of Service events have drawn up to 300 volunteers.

In addition this year, John Carlos, one of the iconic figures from the civil rights movement, will lead Puget Sound’s public celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. The 1968 Olympian and founder of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, will give a free talk at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 22, the day after the holiday. For more details on the public celebration and lecture visit: http://www.pugetsound.edu/news-and-events/campus-news/details/1109/.

University of Puget Sound events on Monday, Jan. 21 and Tuesday, Jan. 22 will include:

Puget Sound campus members who wish to volunteer for community work can sign up online at MLK Day of Service 2013 or they can contact Roman Christiaens or Marta Palmquist Cady at mlk@pugetsound.edu. The volunteers will meet at their community work location or carpool there. Volunteer opportunities include: Metro Parks Tacoma’s Snake Lake Nature Center or Titlow Park, Puget Creek Restoration, AIDS Housing Association of Tacoma, Pierce Stream Team, First Presbyterian Church, Tacoma Rescue Mission, Franke Tobey Jones, L’Arche Farm and Gardens, St. Leo Church’s Backpack Program, Hilltop Urban Gardens, Citizens for a Healthy Bay, New Phoebe House Association, and Habitat for Humanity.

The 5 p.m. reception for volunteers in Rasmussen Rotunda, Wheelock Student Center will bring the community volunteers together for discussion and refreshments. They will hear student reflections about their day of service and meet the recipient of the Keep Living the Dream Award, which annually recognizes a campus member who best embodies the spirit of King’s life and legacy.